July 24 - Poor Little Rich Girl

Today’s movie is a biographical drama with a scene that happens on July 24. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL

F.W. Woolworth, millionaire owner of the Woolworth Department stores tries to force his daughter to divorce her adulterous, drunken husband. Instead, the idiot commits suicide leaving behind one daughter Barbara, who discovers the body. Barbara is raised by nannies. Her father does throw her a hugely expensive [$824,000.00 in todays money] 18^th birthday party in the depths of the Great Depression. She goes to England to be presented at court and while touring Europe begins an affair with  Prince Alexis Mdivani, even though he is already married. Barbara’s father tries to prevent the marriage and forces him to sign a pre-nuptial agreement. They finally get married, but the marriage does not last due to his philandering. She finally turns 21 and is worth $50 million dollars [$886 million today] making her one of the richest women in the world. She meets Count Kurt Reventlow and they begin an affair. Barbara divorces Alexis and marries Kurt. Her only child, Lance is born. There are threats to kidnap Lance. Barbara and Kurt have problems due to his controlling personality and physical abuse. He persuades her to renounce her US citizenship to save taxes. Barbara starts her obsession with buying expensive jewelry and giving lavish gifts to her friends. Kurt takes her to see perverted erotic shows. Later he leaves with Lance and is arrested. They go through a very public and acrimonious divorce. Barbara returns to the USA where she meets and marries Cary Grant, the famous movie actor.  During World War II she is watched by the FBI who think she’s a Nazi sympathizer, while she buys the freedom of Baron Gottfried von Cramm, a friend of hers from before the war, from the Nazis. Her father dies and she learns she cannot have any other children. She fights with Kurt about the custody arrangements for Lance and divorces Cary Grant. Barbara lets Lance be raised buy others and goes to Paris and settles in Tangier, Morocco. There she meets and marries Leigh Lawson as Prince Igor Troubetzkoy. They later divorced. Barbara then had a 53 day marriage to Porfirio Rubirosa a notorious playboy who continued his affair with Zsa Zsa Gabor during his marriage to Barbara. She then was re-introduced to Baron Gottfried von Cramm and married him, but they divorced due to his homosexuality. Barbara argued with her son over his pursuit of what she considered a dangerous career as a race car driver. She had an affair with James Douglas III, but he left after being unable to help Barbara end her drug and alcohol dependence. She then marries  Raymond Doan, a con-man out for her money, but later divorces him. The death of her only child Lance Reventlow in a plane crash on July 24, 1972 [Part 6 - 43:04 to 44:18] sends her into a deep depression. She died in 1979 with only $3,500.00 in the bank.

                  

A really tragic story. For Barbara Hutton it was downhill all the way. No one ever really seemed to care about her. She ended up alone and broke. A real life example of the lesson taught in Citizen Kane: money can’t buy happiness.  

Poor Little Rich Girl: The Life and Legacy of Barbara Hutton by C. David Heymann (Lyle Stuart, Inc., Secaucus, NJ, 1984) at page 335 gives his death date

Producers - Nick Gillott and Lester Persky

Director - Charles Jarrott

Screenplay - Dennis Turner

Awards – The film won the Outstanding Costume Design for a Miniseries or a Special, Outstanding Hairstyling for a Miniseries or a Special and Outstanding Makeup for a Miniseries or a Special Emmys at the 40^th Annual Primetime Emmy  Awards.

Runtime – 4 hours

Released – November  16, 1987

Starring –

Matilda Johansson as Barbara at age 5

Fairuza Balk as  Barbara at age 12

Farrah Fawcett as Barbara Hutton (Adult)

David Ackroyd as Graham Mattison

Nicholas Clay as Prince Alexis Mdivani

Sascha Hehn as Baron Gottfried von Cramm

Burl Ives as F.W. Woolworth

James Read as Cary Grant

Kevin McCarthy as Franklyn Hutton

Bruce Davison as Jimmy Donahue

Anne Francis as Marjorie Merriweather Post

Zoë Wanamaker as Jean Kennerly

Brenda Blethyn as Tiki Tocquet

Jonathan Brandis as Lance Reventlow (child)

Linden Ashby as Lance Reventlow (adult)

Leigh Lawson as Prince Igor Troubetzkoy

Amadeus August as Count Kurt Haugwitz-Reventlow

Stéphane Audran as Pauline de la Rochelle

Tony Peck as James Douglas III

Miriam Margolyes as Elsa Maxwell

Debbie Barker as Jill St. John     

Neville Jason as Raymond Doan               

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2014.